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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

The body of abducted Veracruz journalist found

Lucio R. Borderland Beat with material from CJP, and Puebla Noticias

A body was found Tuesday
with a plastic bag wrapped around her head, hands tied behind her body, and her
feet bound. The body was on the Cuacnopalan-Tehuacan highway, and is identified as reporter Anabel Flores Salazar.

The El Sol
de Orizaba reporter was abducted Monday from her home near the city of Orizaba, in the state of Veracruz.

Between 9:00 and 9:50
hours the discovery was made on the road side in the municipality of Palmar de
Bravo in the state of Puebla.

The Attorney General (State
FGE) would not confirm the cause of death was asphyxiation
or if the woman had injuries with some kind of weapon.

Flores Salazar, was abducted from her home, at around 2 AM
Monday, as she was feeding her 15 day old baby, in the Puerta Grande Mariano
Escobedo municipality in the metropolitan area of ​​the city of Orizaba.

Eight or more armed assailants
dressed in military uniforms, forced their way into Flores Salazar's home, and went
straight to her room. The journalist's
aunt Sandra Luz Salazar, who was in the house at the time, said the assailants
claimed they had a warrant for the reporter's arrest. Gunmen kept weapons pointed at family members
in the home, while Flores Salazzar was forced into one of three gray trucks the
armed men arrived in.

"We pleaded with
them not to take her. I told them that she had a newborn baby," said Luz Salazar. Flores Salazar, who covers crime for the
newspaper, and leaves behind a baby and a four-year-old son.

Veracruz Governor
Javier Duarte Ochoa said on Twitter Monday that authorities were following the
case carefully. A statement from the state prosecutor's office, also released
Monday, claimed the reporter had links with an alleged member of an organized
crime group. Under Duarte’s time in
office there have been 11 murders of Veracruz journalists.

"The
administration of Governor Javier Duarte Ochoa has a dismal record of impunity
and has been incapable and unwilling to prosecute crimes against the
press," said Carlos Lauría, Committee to Protect Journalists, senior
program coordinator for the Americas.

"We urge federal
authorities to take over the investigation into Anabel Flores Salazar's murder,
seriously look her journalism as a possible motive, and bring all those
responsible to justice."

A statement from the
Veracruz state prosecutor's office, issued shortly after her abduction, said
that in August 2014 Flores Salazar had been in the company of an alleged member
of an organized crime group at the time of his arrest. Authorities said they
are looking into possible link between Flores Salazar and this individual. The
statement did not provide further details

When CPJ asked Luz
Salazar about the alleged connection, she said her niece had been having dinner
with her family when the suspected criminal, who was at the same restaurant but
not with them, was arrested.

"Veracruz
authorities have a history of denigrating the activities of local journalists
without providing any concrete evidence," said Lauría. "We urge
authorities to abstain from making unfounded accusations that may further
endanger the Veracruz media."

54 comments:

again, why do they insist on leaving bodies with pants down shirts up??? If thats some way to humiliate someone then they're wrong because some people are comfortable in their bodies and aren't ashamed of showing it.

5:56 your rationale seems completely out of context . Not sure why you state that. I think they were trying to create a humiliating scene as you stated . These are just sorry low life people . The sooner criminals like these are executed the better .

An honest person doing a job for the public.. a 15 day old baby at home, these cartels are all the same, reporting is a job that takes real balls and bravery in Mexico, to all the reporters on borderlandbeat, thanks for all you do and stay safe.

8:54 the cowardly way the government accuses her of being "with the criminal" arrested before her abduction just because they happened to be in the same restaurant should tell you something. --Then, I don't think veracruz narcos on the area have a lot of money to spend in police uniforms dusguises and 8 or more assailants and three or more pick-ups to arrest her...The mando unico does, and the veracruz state police does, and javier duarte de ochoa has the money to carry on like that, he stole it from the veracruz treasury and from the banks that lend his state money for him to steal...he is PRIISTA!

My take, is that leaving a body dumped in humiliating or atrocious ways is meant to send a chilling message to others to not engage in some activity harmful to the contractor(s) for the homicide.

Sometimes,this is explicit when "cartolinas" with "ESTO LE PASO POR ..." are placed near the dead.

To me, it appears the journalist was working on story that someone with a great deal of power did not approve of. This is a common practice in Mexico as we know from years of following such incidents here on Borderland Beat.Mexico-Watcher

Please, "the cartel bosses" is getting too old...--I mean, with thousands of soldiers and narco-polizetas, federales and estatales and municipales, the government keeps blaming the "carteles" and the "capos" that also work for the government, but they can't control the murdering?--Of course they do, they are the murderers themselves, and they kill only a few reporters every few months, others are just side jobs and collateral damages...

This is wild and terrifying, if real. Mexican journalist threatened via Twitter for criticising new EPN jet and protesting journalist killings. "Watch what you publish. You could be the next. There are strict orders to eliminate people like you." "We're watching you."

It's becoming an epidemic. Yesterday Proceso's reporter for Guerrero received a death threat from a local politician.

Reporter Ezequiel Flores was attending a protest at the state Capitol building against the killing of the Veracruz journalist. He was called over by Roger Arellano, a former PRD mayor and local deputy, driving a blue Jetta.

"You're heading for big trouble, you son of bitch, you remember me?" asked Arellano. "You better watch yourself, because you're gonna get killed," he added. But when Arellano saw other reporters had witnessed the threats, he quickly fled the scene."

Daily Reader @4:52PM Man you're just full of good stuff today. I started moderating comments at 6AM this morning and one of them had a tip about the prison riot (just a few hours after it went down), so stopped moderating and wrote the story on the riot, then went back to moderating. Finished at 2:PM . Had to take a break for awhile. I was bushed. Doesn't give a fellow much time to look for new stories. Your tips are really appreciated. aristeguinoticias and Mexico Voices are 2 of my favorite sites for stories. Thanks again.

Even the Prosecutor couldn't get his facts straight when he tried to tie her to the cartels. “All of the reporter’s probable links are being investigated,” the prosecutor’s office said, immediately adding, “Such as that of Aug. 30, 2014…when she was found in the company of Victor Osorio Santacruz, alias El Pantera, who was detained at that moment by elements of the Mexican Army for his probable connections with an organized crime group.”

Victor Osorio Santacruz is indeed known as El Pantera and is indeed connected to organized crime, having been caught in a police uniform with a list of what bribes the Los Zetas cartel was paying to which officials. But he seems to have been arrested in 2011, not 2014 and by the Mexican marines, not the army.

Flores Salazar’s family reportedly confirms that’s she was present in the restaurant where El Pantera was arrested. But the family says that she was there with them to celebrate her birthday, not to dine with a hoodlum.

Flores apparently witnessed the Army take away some narcos from a restaurant she happened to be dining in. She tried to take some fotos, but was roughed up. The narcos were never seen again. This is the supposed link between Flores and narcos. Her identity as the reporter who could ID the Army guys was recently revealed, putting her life in jeopardy.

Tha is what lucio wrote in the post and is directly from the aunt to CPJ she was in the restaurant eating with family. as for taking fotos the family did not say she did that. She was a crime reporter however so maybe

duarte always tried to say journalists are connected to narcos. (The governor christi of Veracruz) so that it will appear as if they some how deserve being murdered and not that ver is the most dangerous Mexican state to work in.

When we decided to go to Juarez, we went with a Mexican 'fixer' who had successfully brought a CNN crew into Juarez a few years ago, and he contacted a bunch of undercover Federales who drove us around. They carried submachine guns in the front of the car and told us very specific things like, I should bring glasses with me, since I wore contact lenses, just in case we got stopped and kidnapped. We drove a white SUV because only the cartel guys drive black SUVs and if you drive a black SUV you can get targeted. We were shadowed by a white Mustang because we were there too long, but the trip made the movie for us. We understood what Juarez was. The thing that strikes you about Juarez is that life goes on - there are kids playing ball there, there are people going on with their daily business - but at the same time there's this overhanging veil of darkness and crime.

"15 days before her abduction, Anabel Flores Salazar gave birth to her second child. She had been fired from work 8 months ago for allegedly taking payoffs from cartels and tailoring her reports accordingly. She owned a luxury truck she could never have been able to afford from her salary as a reporter." is this true about her???

Maybe she was being paid good money for reporting, or from sharing the butt, or whatever...But the government seems to be too busy trashing her character and giving her a bad reputation, not any of the biig baaad ugly narcos... and an important detail, the narcos usually have the "decency" of explaining on a cartulina or a manta porque se los llevó la verga a sus victimas, --the government does not bother until they have to say sompim' to the press, then they blame "organized crime or connections"

Mexico needs to pay its honest working citizens well, and take everything away from criminals. Take their freedom away and everything they and their families possess. Leave their families living in the streets.

Believe it or not 4:13 the US doesn't intervene with Mexico's internal politics because of respect. The US will only assist Mexico if the government ask for help. Typically Mexico doesn't want any intervention from the US.